French green-chemistry company Carbios (Saint-Beauzire; www.carbios.fr) has signed an agreement with European Investment Bank (EIB, Luxembourg; www.eib.com) to borrow EUR 30m to support the commercial development of its C-Zyme enzymatic PET recycling technology. Carbios had commissioned a demonstration plant for C-Zyme at its site in Clermont-Ferrand / France last year (see Plasteurope.com of 06.10.2021).

“The EIB facility is highly valuable to the company as we are moving forward to the industrialisation and licensing of our recycling technology, C-Zyme,” said Carbios CEO Emmanuel Ladent. “Our industrial demonstration plant entered operations in September 2021 and this financing will contribute to confirm the process’ scale-up and the gradual transformation of Carbios into a leading industrial and commercial player helping both brands and plastics producers to shift from a plastic waste problem to a carbon footprint reducing solution.”

The funds, to be disbursed in a single tranche, are subject to a vote at an unusual shareholders’ meeting, which Carbios will hold in the first quarter of 2022. The loan agreement is supported by the European Commission’s InnovFin Energy Demonstration Programme, which supports innovative projects for sustainable technologies that are aligned with the EU’s goal to be climate neutral by 2050.